Erwin Schrödinger (years of life - 1887-1961) is an Austrian physicist who is known as one of the creators of quantum mechanics. In 1933, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics. Schrödinger Erwin is the author of the main equation in such a section as nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. It is known today as the Schrödinger equation.
Origin, early years
Vienna is the city in which many prominent people were born, including the great physicist Erwin Schrödinger. A brief biography of him and in our time is of great interest, and not only in the scientific community. His father was Rudolf Schrödinger, industrialist and botanist. His mother was the daughter of a chemistry professor at the local University of Vienna. She was half English. As a child, Erwin Schrödinger, whose photo you will find in this article, learned English, which he knew along with German. His mother was a Lutheran, and his father was a Catholic.
In 1906-1910, after graduating from high school, Schrödinger Erwin studied under F. Gazenerl and F. S. Exner. In his youth, he was fond of the work of Schopenhauer. This explains his interest in philosophy, including Eastern, the theory of color and perception, Vedanta.
Service, marriage, work as a professor
Schrödinger Erwin served as an artillery officer from 1914 to 1918. In 1920, Erwin married. His wife was A. Bertel. He met his future wife in Zeemach in the summer of 1913, when he carried out experiments related to atmospheric electricity. Then, in 1920, he became a student of M. Wien, who worked at the University of Jena. A year later, Schrödinger Erwin began working in Stuttgart, where he was an associate professor. A little later, in the same 1921, he moved to Breslau, where he was already a full professor. In the summer, Erwin Schrödinger moved to Zurich.
Life in Zurich
Life in this city was very beneficial for the scientist. The fact is that it was not only science that Erwin Schrödinger liked to devote his time to. Interesting facts from the scientist's life include his passion for skiing and mountain climbing. And the mountains located nearby provided him with a good opportunity to relax in Zurich. In addition, Schrödinger talked with his colleagues Paul Scherrer, Peter Debye and German Weil, who worked at the Zurich Polytechnic. All this contributed to scientific creativity.
Nevertheless, the time that Erwin spent in Zurich was overshadowed by a serious illness in 1921-22. The scientist fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis, so he spent 9 months in the Swiss Alps, in the spa town of Arosa. Despite this, the Zurich years were creatively the most fruitful for Erwin. It was here that he wrote his works on wave mechanics, which became classic. Weil is known to have helped him a lot in overcoming the mathematical difficulties Erwin Schrödinger encountered.
Schrödinger equation
In 1926, Erwin published a very important article in a scientific journal. It presented the equation known to us as the Schrödinger equation. In this article (Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem), it was used in relation to the hydrogen atom problem. With it, Schrödinger explained his spectrum. This article is one of the most important in physics of the 20th century. In it, Schrödinger laid the foundations for a new direction in science - wave mechanics.
Work at the University of Berlin
The fame that came to the scientist opened the way for him to the prestigious Berlin University. Erwin became a candidate for the position of professor of theoretical physics. This post was released after Max Planck resigned. Schrodinger, overcoming doubts, accepted this offer. He took up his duties on October 1, 1927.
In Berlin, Erwin found like-minded people and friends in the person of Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Max von Laue. Communication with them, of course, inspired the scientist. Schrödinger at the University of Berlin gave lectures on physics, conducted seminars, and a physical colloquium. In addition, he participated in various organizational events. Nevertheless, on the whole, Erwin stood apart. This is evidenced by the memoirs of his contemporaries, as well as his lack of students.
Erwin leaves Germany, Nobel Prize
In 1933, when Hitler came to power, Erwin Schrödinger left the University of Berlin. His biography, as you see, is marked by numerous travels. This time, the scientist simply could not do otherwise. In the summer of 1937, Schrödinger, already elderly, who did not want to obey the new regime, decided to move. It should be noted that Schrodinger never showed his rejection of Nazism openly. He did not want to interfere in politics. Nevertheless, in Germany in those years it was almost impossible to maintain political apathy.
Just at that time, Frederick Lindeman, a British physicist, visited Germany. He invited Schrödinger to get a job at Oxford University. The scientist, having gone to South Tyrol for a summer vacation, no longer returned to Berlin. Together with his wife, he arrived in Oxford in October 1933. Shortly after his arrival, Erwin found out about the Nobel Prize (along with P. Dirac).
Work at Oxford
Schrodinger at Oxford was a member of Magdalen College. He had no teaching duties. Together with other emigrants, the scientist received security from the company Imperial Chemical Industry . Nevertheless, he could not get comfortable in the unusual atmosphere of this university. One of the reasons is the lack of interest in modern physics in an educational institution focused mainly on traditional theological and humanitarian disciplines. This made Schrödinger feel that he did not deserve such a high salary and position. Another aspect of the scientist's discomfort was the features of public life, which was full of formalities and conventions. This fettered Schrödinger's freedom, as he himself admitted. All these and other difficulties, as well as the curtailment of the funding program in 1936, forced Erwin to consider job offers. After Schrodinger visited Edinburgh, he decided to return to his homeland.
Homecoming
In the fall of 1936, the scientist began working at the University of Graz as a professor of theoretical physics. However, his stay in Austria was short. In March 1938, the country was anschluss, and it became part of Nazi Germany. The scientist, taking the advice of the rector of the university, wrote a letter of reconciliation in which he expressed his willingness to put up with the new government. March 30, it was published and caused a negative reaction from the emigrating colleagues. However, these measures did not help Erwin. Due to political unreliability, he was dismissed from his post. Schrödinger received official notice in August 1938.
Rome and Dublin
The scientist went to Rome, since fascist Italy was then the only state whose entry did not require a visa (they could not have provided Erwin). By this time, Schrodinger contacted Imon de Valera, the Prime Minister of Ireland. He was a mathematician by education and decided to create a new educational institution in Dublin. De Valera procured a transit visa for Erwin and his wife, which opened the way through Europe. So they arrived in Oxford in the fall of 1938. While the organizational work was underway to open the institute in Dublin, Erwin took a temporary position in the Belgian Ghent. This post was funded by the Franchi Foundation.
It was here that the scientist found the Second World War. The intervention of de Valera helped Erwin (who after the Anschluss was considered a citizen of Germany, that is, an enemy country) to travel through England. He arrived in the capital of Ireland on October 7, 1939.
Work at the Dublin Institute, the last years of life
The Dublin Institute of Higher Studies was officially opened in June 1940. Erwin was the first professor at the Department of Theoretical Physics - one of the first two departments. In addition, he was appointed director of the institute. Other employees who appeared later (among them were V. Geithler, L. Yanoshi and K. Lantsosh, as well as many young physicists), could devote themselves completely to research.
Erwin led the seminar, gave lectures, initiated summer schools at the institute, which were attended by the most prominent physicists in Europe. Schrödinger's main scientific interest in the Irish years was the theory of gravity, as well as the issues that lie at the junction of two sciences - physics and biology. In the years 1940-45. and from 1949 to 1956, the scientist was the director of the department of theoretical physics. Then he decided to return to his homeland, began to work at the University of Vienna as a professor of theoretical physics. After 2 years, the scientist, who was often sick at the time, decided to resign.
Schrödinger spent the last years of his life in Alpbach, a Tyrolean village. The scientist died due to exacerbation of tuberculosis in a hospital in Vienna. This happened on January 4, 1961. Erwin Schrödinger was buried in Alpbach.
Shroedinger `s cat
You have probably already heard of the existence of this phenomenon. However, people far from science usually don’t know much about it. It is worth talking about this, since a very important and interesting discovery was made by Erwin Schrödinger.
Schrödinger's Cat is a famous thought experiment conducted by Erwin. The scientist wanted to show with his help that quantum mechanics is incomplete when it moves from subatomic particles to macroscopic systems.
Erwin's article describing this experiment appeared back in 1935. It employs a method of comparison for explanation, one might even say personifications. The scientist writes that there is a cat and a box in which there is a mechanism containing a container with poisonous gas and a radioactive atomic nucleus. In the experiment, the parameters are chosen so that the decay of the nucleus with a probability of 50% will occur in an hour. If it disintegrates, the container with gas will open and the cat will die. However, if this does not happen, the animal will live.
Experiment results
So, let's leave the animal in the box, wait an hour and ask the question: is the cat alive or not? According to quantum mechanics, the atomic nucleus (and hence the animal) is simultaneously in all states (quantum superposition). The cat-core system before the box was opened was 50% likely to be in the state of "cat is dead, the core had broken up" and with a probability of 50% "the cat was alive, the core hadn't broken up." It turns out that the animal inside is both dead and not.
According to the Copenhagen interpretation, the cat will still be either alive or dead, without intermediate conditions. The decay state of the nucleus is not selected when the box is opened, but when the nucleus enters the detector. Indeed, the reduction of the wave function in this case is connected not with the box observer (human), but with the core observer (detector).
Here is an interesting experiment conducted by Erwin Schrödinger. His discoveries gave impetus to the further development of physics. In conclusion, I would like to give two statements, the author of which he is:
- "The present is the only thing that has no end."
- "I'm going upstream, but the direction of the flow will change."
This concludes our acquaintance with the great physicist, whose name is Erwin Schrödinger. The quotes above allow you to slightly open his inner world.